


The man with my face

by chacusha



Category: Bravely Default (Video Game) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Angst, F/M, Identity Issues, Post-Bravely Second speculative fic, Press Start treat, Unrequited Love, but the setting is just a pretense to get Alternis & Ringabel in the same room
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:41:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26300602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chacusha/pseuds/chacusha
Summary: Normally, Alternis liked to hide behind his armor, let it conceal his revealing facial expressions behind a perfect poker face. But as the two of them were alone, Alternis decided to remove it. If the fact of their identical faces was unsettling, let Ringabel also be made nervous by it.Post-Bravely Second, Alternis and Edea find Ringabel, and Alternis and Ringabel have a talk.
Relationships: Alternis Dim & Ringabel, Alternis Dim/Edea Lee (one-sided), Edea Lee/Ringabel (background)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 21
Collections: Press Start VI





	The man with my face

**Author's Note:**

  * For [inquisitor_tohru](https://archiveofourown.org/users/inquisitor_tohru/gifts).



Alternis lost no time in seeking out Ringabel in his cabin. He knocked on the door and when the other man answered, Alternis brushed past him and said bluntly, "We need to talk."

Ringabel raised an eyebrow. "Oh? What about?"

Alternis studied the curious and expectant look on Ringabel's face. The expression was an unusual one but otherwise, in every other feature, the resemblance was uncanny. It was unsettling. Normally, Alternis liked to hide behind his armor, let it conceal his revealing facial expressions behind a perfect poker face. The helmet's metallic echo lent his voice an intimidating timbre that matched his dark powers, or so he was often told by other asterisk holders. But as the two of them were alone, Alternis decided to remove it. If the fact of their identical faces was unsettling, let Ringabel also be made nervous by it.

After removing his helmet and pulling down his mask, Alternis stood for a moment in silence, trying to decide where to start. Finally, he said, "Perhaps it doesn't matter to the Lord Marshal, but I for one am curious where you have been and why you have been gone for so long."

"'Lord Marshal', really? Is that what you call Edea?" Ringabel reclined, a playful grin spreading across his face.

Alternis hated the carefree expression. "It is her _title,"_ he snapped.

Ringabel leaned forward, resting his chin on one hand. "Hm, you know, I get the feeling you don't like me much, Dim," he said. "Why not? I am 'you,' aren't I?"

Alternis scowled. "On a normal day, I can't say I like 'me' much either," he said darkly. "And you, sir, are even worse."

Ringabel pressed his hands over his heart, as if he had been wounded there. "What have I done to deserve such harsh words?"

"Do you really want to know?" Alternis gave a second's pause before going into his tirade, "You abandoned Edea for three years, then came back and _abandoned her again_ after she had waited for you. You left her without any means to contact you, and without any indication of how long it would be before she saw you again. You claim to love her, yet you continue to flirt shamelessly with other women. You're faithless, inconsiderate, frivolous... Need I go on?"

"I may not have been with her, but I have never abandoned Edea," Ringabel said quietly.

Alternis sighed. Perhaps that was true -- the man did seem to be keeping tabs on Edea and intervening whenever she was in danger -- but this was all beside the point. Ringabel had not answered his original questions. In fact, it rather seemed like he had skillfully avoided answering them by baiting Alternis. If he did not want to answer those questions, then fine. There were plenty of other pressing things to talk about. "Why _are_ you so different from me, anyway?" It was a question he had always wished to ask Ringabel, because he was the only one who seemed to have the answer. While loyalty to Edea had been a large part of why Alternis had helped her move heaven and earth to find Ringabel, it had not been the only reason; he too had burning questions he wished to ask the wanderer. "Aren't we supposed to be the same person?"

Ringabel seemed on the verge of smiling so Alternis added in his most threatening voice (though lacking his helmet, it was not as intimidating as he hoped), "And please, give me a serious answer for once."

"Very well," Ringabel said, trying to keep his face straight, "but only because you said 'please.' To be honest, when I had no memories, no guide to my personality, I had to choose something and I thought this was the way I used to behave. Even when my memories came back, this way of acting came easily to me, and I didn't see any reason to change. Maybe this is how I am naturally inclined to be, if it had not been for the rough childhood I -- we -- had, if we were no longer weighed down by those memories."

Alternis considered the claim. Somehow he doubted it was entirely right. There was a reason why he could use darkness, after all -- bitterness and despair came easily to him. They were a _part_ of him, as much as his bones and his blood were. It was true he had had an unusually rough upbringing, that it had continued to shape his behavior even after Braev Lee had removed him from it. But not every orphaned street urchin would have responded in the same way to those trying circumstances as Alternis had.

Ringabel was still musing: "The one thing I knew from reading my journals was that I valued... love! And even now, having regained my memories, I find I still value it more than anything. That is my true nature, my purpose, constant across all worlds -- to be a man of love!" Ringabel leaned forward so that his face was only inches away from Alternis's. "I believe this is something we share in common?"

Alternis's face reddened with anger, and he shoved Ringabel's face away roughly. The man was mocking him. Being forced to see such a foolish man walking around with his face felt like the _universe_ was mocking him.

On one point Ringabel was not wrong -- Alternis did feel love strongly and it guided many of his actions. But that was only a partial picture: he also felt _hatred_ strongly, and far more often. The difference was that the hatred was easy for Alternis to display openly -- it fed his dark magic, after all, made him stronger. When focused and targeted toward the Grand Marshal's enemies, it made him an indispensable member of the duchy. The feelings of love, on the other hand, were personal and private, reserved for his journal only. And that journal was apparently the source of Ringabel's confused understanding of his own self.

Ringabel was also not wrong that one of the few things he and Alternis shared was their love for a particular person. Perhaps an agreement could be built on that common ground...

"Well," Ringabel was saying, "is that all you wanted to discuss?"

"No, there is one more matter -- an important one. If you have any doubts, any at all, about the feasibility of coming back to our world and making a life there permanently, I think it is best if you use this opportunity to break things off for good." There was a pause. "Do you understand my meaning? If you will not stay, at least give Edea the gift of closure. She deserves that much."

Worryingly, Ringabel did not speak.

"Well? Say something, Ringabel."

"My intention is and always has been to return to your world."

"Then what? What is stopping you?"

Ringabel shook his head sadly. "Can't say."

The same deflection. "Fine. But let me make something clear. If you hurt Edea again... I will... I swear I will..." Alternis struggled for words, for a threat that did justice to all the anger and resentment that he held in his heart for the freewheeling Ringabel and his careless actions, so different from himself, and yet still somehow himself. What he wished more than anything to say was that he would pursue Edea, seduce her, kiss her until she forgot all about Ringabel. He would do whatever it took to make her forget, even if that meant adopting Ringabel's mannerisms himself and fully replacing the original.

The problem was that it was an empty threat. The result of his last confession of love -- he hadn't meant to say anything, it had just slipped out in a moment when emotions were running high -- came back into his mind and Alternis winced. She had rejected him, of course. But why? Why couldn't she see that he could be... a kind of Ringabel. Perhaps. Alike in many ways, except he would be here with her, always. That was the reality he had to face -- he had _already_ pursued Edea, for years, had made it clear that if she wished, she could easily remake him however she liked. She had never asked it of him, though, and he had never been brave enough to do it himself voluntarily, unbidden. Perhaps on some level, both he and Edea already knew the truth -- that he couldn't replace Ringabel. He just wasn't... enough.

Alternis had no other bargaining chip. He could hate Ringabel, judge him and regard him with disgust forever... but what did Ringabel care what Alternis thought of him? The man clearly couldn't be shamed by people's low opinions of him, Alternis's least of all.

"Cutting Edea out of my life will also hurt her," Ringabel pointed out quietly.

"Then I suggest that you do all in your power to stay by her side," Alternis said, his voice cold.

Ringabel considered this, the expression on his face uncharacteristically somber. When he looked like that, for a moment, Alternis could see himself again, could see the history and years of pain that they shared in common reflected in Ringabel's face too. "If I may make an equally important request of you," Ringabel finally said, slowly, "if anything happens to me, I want you to take care of her."

Of course he would, he thought. But before Alternis could answer, there was a knock on the door and then someone pushed the door open without waiting for a reply. It was Edea. She was greeted with the sight of two men with identical faces, identical hair. They could have switched outfits while she was gone and she would have been none the wiser, perhaps, except that one tilted his head and smiled at her when she came in and the other turned away without a word and donned his helmet once more.


End file.
